There hadn't been such a sprawlingly old-fashioned romantic melodrama as this in quite a while. Even with a sprinkling of foolish moments, it must rate highly as a rousing, crowd-pleasing spectacle, pulling its participants through Ireland, over the Atlantic and across half the breadth of America. Tom Cruise, with an Irish accent good enough to pass muster unless you're Irish, is the son of a poor dirt farmer in 1890s western Ireland. Swearing vengeance for the death of his father and the burning of their home, he somehow ends up with the daughter of his sworn enemy (Nicole Kidman) finding that she is as eager to escape her environment as he is. They get to America posing as brother and sister, lodging in what turns out to be a brothel, where there is, but naturally, only one room for the both of them. Cruise takes out his frustrated love for her by earning money as an unorthodox boxer, but their unspoken affection proves their undoing and a tragedy or two ensues, before the story sweeps to a gloriously corny and excitingly shot finish in the midst of the great Oklahoma land rush of 1903. The film teems with detail in a relatively unobtrusive manner, in the fashion of films from a much earlier time.

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